The Labour Party has enjoyed success as it recorded victories in two by-elections against the Tories. Despite winning with large majorities of 11,220 in Kingswood and 18,540 in Wellingborough, party leader Keir Starmer says that there is “more work to do” if they are to continue building momentum towards a national election later this year. Rishi Sunak, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the midterm polls were “always difficult” and that the “circumstances of these elections were of course particularly challenging”.
The Wellingborough by-election was triggered by former MP Peter Bone’s dismissal due to allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying, which he denied. The Kingswood poll saw incumbent Chris Skidmore standing down in protest at government plans for new North Sea oil and gas licenses. Despite challenges from Reform UK, who achieved their best result since rebranding from the Brexit Party last year, the Conservatives struggled.
Starmer said that the public was “crying out for change” and that his party had the answers to people’s problems. He was “proud” of the results but warned that there was “always more work to do”. The turnouts were roughly half what they were in 2019 but aligned with by-election averages for this Parliament. The results mean that the Tories have now lost 10 by-elections this Parliament, which is more than any other government since the 1960s.
In Wellingborough, Labour’s Gen Kitchen secured a comfortable majority of 6,436. Meanwhile, the Tories suffered their biggest drop in vote share in any by-election since at least the Second World War. Sunak warned that a vote for anyone other than the Conservatives was a vote for Starmer, as the general election would be “between me and him, the Conservatives and Labour”. However, the results heap further pressure on Boris Johnson, particularly after official figures showed that the UK economy had fallen into recession at the end of 2021
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